2: Pouring Concrete

We spent about two months tearing down the old addition and excavating for the new foundation, and by the end of May, 1990, it was time to begin placing the concrete footings. We had a ready mix truck come to the alley, while we took wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of concrete over to be dumped into the previously dug trench.  We poured about 60 linear feet of 12" deep by 24" wide concrete footings.  Roughly 30 wheelbarrows worth of concrete.

(Click on any of the images for a larger view.)

I look exhausted.

 

Richard and Bruce.  My dad came down for the weekend to help out.

Bruce, Richard, and neighbor Matt.

You want to get close to the edge before you tip.  Problem is it's hard to know where the edge is.

I'm roughly the same age now as my Dad was then.

Richard slogs through the wet concrete.

Now that the footing was poured, next was working on the grade beam that would cap the existing foundation for the old building. This was necessary because the old concrete was crumbling. There were roughly 80 linear feet needed.

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The architect insisted on hiring a Structural Engineer to provide us with a drawing for the grade beam.  I remember being pissed off that it cost something like $500 for this sheet of paper.

The process was as follows. Build braces that rested on either side of the new grade beam that would allow for the removal of all the first floor walls and timber supports. Once the old building was no longer relying on the old first floor walls for support, I took out all the old framing and built plywood forms--to hold the concrete beam--on top of the old foundation. Before building those forms I needed to break out a section of the old concrete foundation where the new apartment entry door would be located.

Plywood forms removed from one side of the grade beam.  With more favorable terrain, the concrete delivery truck could pull right next to the forms and drop the mix straight into the forms.  No wheelbarrows needed.  Much easier.  Though I do remember getting upset that one of my forms blew out because I didn't brace it properly.

Virginia "holding up" one of the temporary braces used to support the house while we built the grade beam.

The temporary posts holding up the bldg are still in place while we built the new 2x4 walls on top of the new concrete grade beam.

Because the existing foundation didn't go down below the frostline, there was also a fair amount of "underpinning" of the existing foundation that we had to do.  No pictures of that.  Just more digging, more concrete, more money.

While I was building the forms for the grade beam, our masonry contractor built a block foundation on top of the footings we poured earlier.  This allowed us to continue the grade beam concrete over the top of the block foundation, joining them both.

A detail showing the connection between the grade beam and the new block foundation.